Reloading for a pump .223

Hi. I've been reloading for about a month now and I am really enjoying it. I have reloaded for my 308, my 7-08, and now for my .223 Remington. Can you guys tell me if I need to crimp the cases? I have read that it should be done for pumps, but have been told by a friend it is not necessary. I put 5 rounds in a magazine tonight, un-crimped and they fed fine. Am I asking for trouble?

Hi. I've been reloading for about a month now and I am really enjoying it. I have reloaded for my 308, my 7-08, and now for my .223 Remington. Can you guys tell me if I need to crimp the cases? I have read that it should be done for pumps, but have been told by a friend it is not necessary. I put 5 rounds in a magazine tonight, un-crimped and they fed fine. Am I asking for trouble?

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The only trouble you might have with the pump is the bullets can be pushed in the case if there
is not enough neck tension on the bullet.

Crimping could help, but only if you use cannelured bullets.

If the bullet is pushed back into the case it can effect accuracy.

If you use bullets with no Cannelure a tight neck to bullet fit would be recommended.

They are probably recommending crimping for pump actions because of tubular magazines... If your lever/pump action uses a tubular magazine, then definitely crimp them.
However, if it uses a box magazine, then it's up to you. I personally wouldn't crimp them. The .223 doesn't produce enough recoil to set back the bullets, and the action probably isn't rough enough to move them either.

I load .223's all the time for my AR-15's with no crimping... If they can stand up to that autoloading action, then your pump should be just fine!

Experiment. Load a few bullets onto cases with already fired primers or no primers, and no powder charge. Repeatedly cycle them through the action as many time as you think necessary, and keep re-measuring them. Even fire a few live rounds with those same dummies in the magazine and measure. See for yourself if the C.O.L. changes.

I agree that you shouldn't have to crimp. With that being said, RCBS does make a special set of dies for ARs. It comes with a small base resizing die to ensure proper feeding and a taper crimp seating die, which is different than a standard seater die (roll crimp).

Taper crimp die is just that, squeeze the neck instead of rolling it. good example 45 auto uses a taper crimp where a 44 mag uses a roll in the candelure.

Good info. One thing to keep in mind about those RCBS small base dies... A customer of mine uses these for his Colt AR15, with 5.56 chamber, and is on the borderline of what I'd call excessive headspace. Those dies, in my opinion, would work best for an autoloading rifle with a .223 Rem chamber, as they are usually a tad tighter and have a shorter leade.
That being said, I know others who use the RCBS small base X dies for AR's and love them.
I've not tried the new line of AR specific dies RCBS is offering, the ones in the black box.. probably the same as the small base X dies, but with a new marketing angle.
I have a set of standard .223 Rem RCBS dies (full length), that I've loaded thousands of rounds with through my 5.56 chambered AR's, and love the loads they produce. Some people say that they (the regular FL dies) don't size down enough for autos, but my set sizes down nearly perfectly, I still have to back the die off about 0.04 - .06" to get the proper partial full length resizing that fills my chamber the best without being too tight.

The taper crimp die 264Winmag mentioned on the other hand, would be interesting. I shoot lots of BTHP match bullets in my AR's, without cannelures, so I don't ever crimp - and don't want to use a Lee Factory Crimp die, so the taper crimp die would be fun to test out... that being said, 9 times out of 10, crimping degrades accuracy, so I wouldn't crimp unless absolutely necessary.

I do not believe there is enough recoil in a 223 to make crimping necessary.
I have owned a Rem 7615 in 223 for several years and have yet to crimp a case .

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Hairtrigger, what kind of success have you had with the 7615? I bought mine in 2009 but I really have not done much with it.

Thanks for all of the replies. I am using RCBS FL dies for my .223 loads. I have Hornady dies for my 7-08 and was given a really old set of Savage dies for my .308.

Again, I am a newbie, but so far, I like the Hornady dies best, just because they have the sliding bullet guide that centers them in the seating die. This is helpful for getting non boat-tail bullets started.

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